Gael has always been an outcast and a weirdo - but when he moves to the small town of Imperium, he finds himself in the middle of a supernatural community, he didn't know he needed, or existed. It only becomes more interesting when the local hot vam...
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"So, you had a good run in the forest as a wolf and got that out of your system?" Fred asked, tapping her perfectly manicured nails on the dining room table.
I nodded, staring at her nails, almost enthralled by them. How did she even have perfect nails as a painter? I always had paint everywhere. I barely had any clothes without paint splotches on it.
"Right, so are you ready to go back to work now?"
"Uh, yeah. I guess."
"Good, because even though our work is technically ruined, it's not really, is it. It's more like it's been altered. And we can work with that. So, we should do a group show. You and me. Showcase all of it. We need a good title."
"Collateral damage," I muttered.
"Would be great for my section but not yours. Might as well go big and just title it Bigot. And our artist statement should just be plain and simple. Someone poured black paint over our work because of bigotry. Because that's what happened. Can you imagine a bigger 'fuck you' to the assholes who did it? They're not gonna get to fuck with us and not get something back."
I finally looked up and met her gaze. She looked so triumphant. So sure. Like it didn't even matter if her hard work had been ruined. She didn't look defeated at all.
"What about all your work?"
"I can make new paintings. All the time. And I wanted a better concept, didn't I? We should still write artist statements for the previous work, but then splash black paint on that too, so it can't be properly read. Might as well take it all the way. And that's our end-of-the-year exhibition."
I stared at her for a moment, while she kept tapping her nails on my dining table. She had thought about it so in depth.
"It's a good concept," I said then. "It's a really good concept. I don't see why we shouldn't do it."
"Awesome. I knew you'd probably like it. Maybe. I mean, I was hoping you would. It doesn't really work when it's only me." She shrugged and then sent me a wry smile. "Also." She rose, walked around the table and slapped me on the back of my head, making me yelp. "Don't ever just disappear on Abel like that again, you hear me? He was about to tear the whole county apart, looking for you. Never disappear."
"Okay, okay, I swear," I said, having wrapped my arms around my head, not wanting to get hit again.
"I mean it, Gael, next time I'll do more than hit some sense into your fat head, you get me?"
She was so tiny, but seriously scary at the same time. I'd rather go toe-to-toe with Cal and all her massive brothers.
"I promise. It was a lapse in judgement. Something I've always done, and I don't wanna do that again and I didn't wanna do it, but I did, because things got too fucking hard and everything's always so fucking hard and it isn't when I'm not even conscious and the wolf is just running around the forest, doing whatever he wants." I stopped my rambling by slapping my hand over my mouth.
